Workers at the Tân Nhiên Company Limited in Tây Ninh Province’s Hoà Thành Town pack super thin-rice paper in plastic bags. The product has made it to the “One Commune – One Product” list. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tân

TÂY NINH — The south-eastern province of Tây Ninh is expanding the national “One Commune – One Product” programme to increase the value of the products and incomes of local producers.

Now, after more than three years of implementing the programme, the province has 68 OCOP products, 47 rated three-star, 20 rated four-star and one potentially five-star level, the programme’s highest.

The products include rice paper, red chilli salt, custard apple, honey, wild vegetables, and incense among many others.

Nguyễn Đình Xuân, director of the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the products meet food safety, packing and design quality criteria and use inputs with clear origins and traceability.

OCOP farm produce are grown to Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards.

Some of the processed products have received food safety certification such as ISO 22000, HACCP and FSSC 22000.

Super-thin rice paper made by the Tân Nhiên Company Limited in Hoà Thành Town’s Trường Đông Commune is a four-star product with ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, HALAL, and FDA certificates.

The product is exported to many countries, including China, South Korea, Japan, and the US.

Lê Thị Thanh Thuý has an establishment in Trảng Bàng Town’s Gia Lộc Ward whose dew-dried rice paper and wild vegetables are recognised as three-star OCOP products.

Her three-hectare farm grows many wild vegetables, and she sells her rice paper domestically and exports to the US, she said.

Trảng Bàng Town is focusing on developing its key products such as dew-dried rice paper, wild vegetables and honeydew melon.

Hà Minh Dảo, deputy chairman of the local People’s Committee, said the town has four OCOP products, including one rated four-star.

The programme plays an important role in the town’s socio-economic development, helps produce traditional products with high quality and competitiveness and improve local incomes, he said.

The province is well known for its speciality products such as red chilli salt, shrimp salt, rice paper, wild vegetables, and custard apple, and the programme offers an opportunity to develop them.

It has potential for developing more OCOP products in combination with rural tourism.

Xuân, director of the department, said developing OCOP products in combination with tourism is vital and encouraging since it helps develop the rural economy, preserve cultures, protect the environment, and foster new-style rural areas.

The department plans to keep a close eye on the quality of OCOP products, focus on evaluating prospective products and enhance producers’ awareness of their responsibility to consumers, he said.

Lê Hồng Vân, deputy chairman of the Hoà Thành Town People’s Committee, said it is necessary to have speciality and OCOP products to develop tourism.

To have them though, they need to be sold through modern distribution channels such as supermarkets, convenience stores and e-commerce platforms, he said.

The province does online trade promotion for its OCOP products, and takes them to trade fairs locally and in other provinces.

It has a number of targets for the programme.

It plans to have 100-120 OCOP products rated at least three stars and two or three potentially rated five by 2025.

It wants co-operatives to produce at least 40 per cent of all OCOP products, and small and medium-sized companies to account for another 30 per cent.

It expects 50 per cent of all traditional craft villages to make OCOP products.

Its target is for at least 50 per cent of OCOP products to be sold through modern distribution channels.

To achieve the targets, it will have support policies and trade promotions and connect sellers and buyers in and outside the province. — VNS